The Use Of Scrabble Game As A Teaching Medium To Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery

This study aims to examine the use of Scrabble game as a teaching medium to improve the vocabulary mastery of 2 nd grade students of a Junior High School in West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. This research employed classroom action research (CAR). The subjects in this study were 27 2 nd grade students. The data collection methods used in this research are observation, documentation, and tests. The results showed that the scrabble game medium was able to improve the vocabulary mastery of the students. This is evidenced by the increase in students' English vocabulary mastery in each cycle. In the first cycle the average value obtained was 62.37 (enough) out of 100 (very good) with a completeness percentage of 33% (unfinished) from 100% (completed) while in the second cycle the average value obtained by students increased from 62.37 (enough) to 77.37 (good) from 100 (very good) with the percentage of completeness reaching 70% (completed) from 100% (completed).


INTRODUCATION
Vocabulary is deemed as one of the important aspects in learning a language. This is one of the important aspects to help the language learner improving their language skills. In addition, the mastery of vocabulary can determine the quality of students in using a language. According to Schmitt (2014), the more vocabulary a person memorizes in his mind, the easier it is for that person to communicate with others. Likewise, Yunisa (2007) states that vocabulary mastery is a measure of a person's understanding of the vocabulary in a language, and his mastery of using the vocabulary both orally and in writing. Regarding medium, by definition, it is any tool that can be used as a channel for messages to achieve goals (Djamarah, 2006). Learning media have a main function to increase students' motivation. According to Ali (2010) learning media is defined as everything that could be used to channel messages, stimulate the thoughts, feelings, concerns and willingness of students so that they could encourage the teaching and learning process. While Musfiqan (2012) revealed that a more complete learning media could be used as an intermediary between teachers and students in understanding learning materials to be more effective and efficient.
To improve the mastery of vocabulary, there are several ways that are commonly used by people who want to learn English, for example: studying at school, taking courses or special institutions that teach English, and various other ways. In the process of increasing students' vocabulary mastery; there are several factors that usually affect the process of increasing the vocabulary mastery. These factors are divided into external and internal factors. External factors encompass the teaching methods and the teaching employed by the teacher during the learning process.
This is because in the teaching and learning process, to provoke students' enthusiasm in learning English, teachers should have methods, media and facilities that can be applied or used in teaching. On the contrary, internal factors are those that come from the students themselves. Scrabble is a type of board game that can be used as a medium to support students' academic activities. Scrabble can be used as a medium in developing language skills (Hinebaugh, 2009). Meanwhile, according to Hargreaves (2012) Scrabble is an activity that involves word recognition. Waite (2009:217) in Voinov, V. (2010) also adds that scrabble is a game that offers mental activities that improve cognitive skills. Then according to Pyatt, (2012) Scrabble takes the educational value of crossword puzzles to the next level. Scrabble players can improve their vocabulary every time they play, look up words in the dictionary, or receive exposure to previously unknown words used by opponents. Teachers can also narrow and focus the vocabulary used to fit a particular theme or rule they are learning. In this way, memory and memory also come into play. Scrabble games can increase vocabulary because of the strategy of the game. Djiwandono (2008) states that vocabulary mastery can be divided into 2, namely. Active-productive mastery and passive-receptive mastery. Furthermore, he explained that vocabulary is part of activeproductive mastery often known as active vocabulary, namely vocabulary that a language user can use naturally, and without much difficulty in expressing himself. On the other hand, the vocabulary that is part of the passive-receptive (passive-vocabulary) is a language user of another person, without being able to use it naturally in their own expressions.
Before conducting the research, the researcher did an initial observation. The observation shows that the mastery of students was still low. It was found that the lack of facilities and media for learning English causes the teaching and learning process less effective. In addition, the lack of student participation in teaching and learning activities led to boring learning atmosphere, especially learning English vocabulary. The teaching media was still traditional and and monotonous.
Therefore, the researcher intends to conduct research on the use of the Scrabble Game medium to improve students' vocabulary mastery. The main reason to chose Scrabble over other media was because this medium had never been used before at the school.

RESEARCH METHODS
This research employed classroom action research (CAR). Classroom action research (CAR) is a series of action research carried out cyclically in order to solve problems until the problem is solved (Mahmud, 2008). There were 27 students participated in this research. performance or behavior of teachers in teaching which is considered inefficient. This change in performance is done by doing reflection or self-assessment so that teachers are encouraged to work more effectively and efficiently. Secondly, improving the morale or morale of teachers who are rated low. The principle of classroom action research requires a commitment to improve teaching and learning so that it can be useful to provide motivation so that teachers always improve their work spirit.
To collect the required data, several data collection techniques were used namely observation, documentation and tests.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data was obtained in 2 cycles.

Observation cycle I
At this observation stage, the researcher observes every action or response given by students while in the teaching and learning process from the beginning to the end. The observation process is assisted by an observation sheet that has been provided by the researcher. In the first cycle, based on the results of observations of student activities, the scores are quite good, namely, the average student scores 18 out of a maximum score of 28, with a percentage success rate of 64% from 100%. In observation cycle I, there were still some observation indicators that had not been met by students. So, the observations in cycle I were not maximized.

Observation Cycle II
At the observation stage of the second cycle, the researcher observed every action or response given by students when the teaching and learning process took place. The observation process used an observation sheet. The following are the results of The results of data analysis in cycle I shows that the average score of the class in cycle 1 is quite good with the number 62.37 and the percentage of completeness is 33% (unfinished) from 70-100% (completed).

Test Cycle II
The following are the test results obtained by students in cycle II: Table 4. Cycle II Students Test Results scrabble game medium. In addition, in terms of absenteeism, the number of students who did not enter either by neglect, illness, or permission decreased in the even semester after applying the learning method using the scrabble game medium. This shows the interest or desire of students to learn the English Language has increased compared to before.